'Obsidia' - Hallowe'en 2006

I like firemen. On Halloween night, they liked me too. T'was good fun.

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The only piece of this costume I did not make myself are the shoes... They just regular black jazz shoes.

The wig is black "jumbo braid" extension hair, glued to a nylon base and styled. Took approximately 2 weeks worth of evenings.
The unitard is a single-seam (up the back), shoulder closure pieces sewn from a pattern I drafted myself (one evening drafting, one cutting and one sewing), out of "gun metal" stretch velvet. I was exhausted and accidentally cut the fabric on the wrong nap (d'oh!!) but this left the final garment very pleasing in a tactile manner, several people got completely distracted while "petting" me... The shoulders / upper torso are embellished with frayed organza, metallic crepe organza, and nylon liner fabric.
The warmers were hand knit in the round by me on the bus commute to and from work over a couple weeks. They are various medium weight and boucle yarns in greys, black and little splashes of slate blue.
The tail is possibly my favourite part of the costume - it has fantastic weight and swing, reacts wonderfully to movement, esp stylized "catty" steps and swift turns of the body. The base is 3 strips of braided "gun metal" stretch velvet with the same various yarns as the warmers and "fluffs" as theunitard sewn on. Ties around the waist with a nylon grey belt and snaps on to the back of the unitard.
The make up is a combo of Ben Nye creme colours for the base and Snazaroo black for the detail lines, as well as some revlon blue-grey and navy blue eye shadows and cheap red lip stick.

The lack of contrast/detail in an all black character is a little disappointing, given the usual abundance of detail of which I am so fond in CATS costumes. However, for a costume I've been meaning to construct since I was 14, it's nice to now have this one in the bag, and I had a fantastic time wearing her around. Read more about my Hallowe'en 2006 ...

"Obsidia" is an original character in the style of "CATS" the musical, constructed through October and worn for Hallowe'en 2006. Photographs by J.McNichol and C. Cornell.